Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and the like offer an opportunity to improve current network management practices with automated optimization processes. SDN provides an architecture that is dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable, making it ideal for the high-bandwidth, dynamic nature of applications. This architecture decouples the network control and forwarding functions enabling the network control to become directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted for applications and network services. NFV is a network architecture concept that proposes using Information Technology (IT) virtualization related technologies to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may be connected, or chained, to create communication services. A Virtualized Network Function (VNF) can include one or more virtual machines running different software and processes, on top of industry standard high volume servers, switches, and storage, or even cloud computing infrastructure, instead of having custom hardware appliances for each network function.
Conventional systems and methods, including SDN, NFV, etc., do not have an ability to recommend connectivity service changes and/or VNFs to customers using the network, in an automated manner, using network analytics to make a recommendation on how and when the service can be improved. VNF deployments are currently at an early stage, and each VNF vendor provides targeted VNFs with minimal overlap in functionality with other vendors. Since virtual appliances (VNF) are as complex as their hardware counterparts, they require complex Network Management Systems (NMSs) to provision and monitor their performance. Nevertheless, each NMS only monitors one type of virtual appliance. As NMSs are used to monitor and provision, they do not provide recommendations on how to improve network performance. Even more importantly, an NMS of one vendor would not make a recommendation to use a VNF of another vendor. Thus, conventionally, there is no common system to monitor the performance of network services, especially from the point of view of VNFs that can also recommend which VNFs should be in service.